Thanks, Sebastian & Nick.
Regarding the online _help_, I looked for that, first by trying _help xline_ but then also in wandering around the graph help & never could find anything on xline. After reading your eMail, Nick, I tried
help axis_label_options
& couldn't find anything on xline there either. Granted, I still would have needed the non-trick trick, but I have to say that searching the on-line help was frustrating (perhaps too because I've gotten a bit rusty with Stata due to health issues over the past year or more).
Eric
>Good answers have already been posted, but the question
>remains of why you thought that the -xline()- option
>might perform in the way you wanted, so that misunderstanding
>needs elucidation.
>
>There are two issues here.
>
>The first is that the on-line _help_, here for -axis label options-, specifies what kind of input is acceptable. The trick that Michael Blasnik specified
>
>`=d(5jan2007)'
>
>is not explicit in that help, nor should it have been -- unless it is considered acceptable to spell out almost everywhere
>in the help that you can use that trick to specify input. (It could in
>principle be relevant to _every_ command.) By the way, I say "trick" but that is just light-hearted. There is no dodge or work-around: it is
>a perfectly straightforward device in Stata...
>
>
>Eric G. Wruck
>
>I am working on a graph & want to insert vertical lines for various
>dates, time being the x-axis. It seems xline will not accept
>expressions or variable names, as I have tried, for example:
>
>xline(d(5jan2007))
>
>or
>
>xline(scan1)
>
>where scan1 was previously defined in the .do file with
>
>gen scan1 = d(5jan2007)
>
>The only way I get the thing to work is to have xline(17171), but I
>don't want to have to look up all the dates by hand. Does someone
>know an easier way to handle this?
>*
>* For searches and help try:
>* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
>* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
>* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
--
===================================================
Eric G. Wruck
Econalytics
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Columbus, OH 43209
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eMail: [email protected]
website: http://www.econalytics.com
====================================================
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
